Working with social responsibility

For J. Lauritzen, human rights have been in the very centre of how we have conducted our business for decades, e.g. the right to enjoy just and favourable conditions of work, the right to social security, including social insurance, the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to health, the right to education and the right to cultural life.

As shipowner and operator, we constantly face challenges ashore and at sea when it comes to human rights and labour conditions. The present scope of our social responsibility programme ashore focuses on corporate human resourceissues such as competency development, terms of employment, diversity and recruitment. Onboard our vessels, social responsibility is also closely linked to health, safety and security issues.

Working with the Guiding Principles

We are in the process of ensuring our own human rights due diligence which on an ongoing basis will include outline and identification of adverse human rights impacts, related action plans that will address the prevention and mitigation of identified negative impacts in e.g. relevant policies, standard operating procedures. Another part of this process will be tracking performance through milestones and follow-up mechanisms which will enable us to communicate with relevant stakeholders, e.g. in our corporate responsibility reporting.

Health & Safety

Our business units Lauritzen BulkersandLauritzen Kosanconstantly seek to develop and improve their health and safety policies and related procedures in accordance with legislation, regulations and the realities of our operations.

Our bulk carrier and fully pressurised gas carrier operations rely on external technical managers’ performance in terms of hiring and training crews. The selection of these third-party service providers is based on thorough due diligence. Each business unit maintains a close and consistent dialogue with these providers in order to constantly match Lauritzen and our clients' safety expectations.

Security

Piracy and armed robbery against vessels and seafarers are serious matters. Due to the political instability in many countries, the risk of piracy cannot be eliminated. Thus, it is necessary to minimize the risk through effective governing and the efficient use of available precautions.

Protecting our seafarers and operating our vessels safely and securely have our highest priority, however operating in high-risk areas is inevitable. Consequently, we take strong security measures towards terrorism and piracy. Our internal security experts monitor the situation in high-risk areas on a daily basis and we constantly evaluate our procedures based on the latest intelligence. Before a vessel transits through or nearby a high-risk region, a thorough analysis of the threat is completed and the latest intelligence reports are obtained from the relevant authorities.

A set of corporate guidelines on secure vessel operation and anti-piracy has been issued by the Executive Management based on the industry’s Best Management Practice (BMP) and recommendations from national and international authorities. J. Lauritzen supports the use of armed guards on board our vessels in compliance with internal as well as international and national guidelines and requirements.

Fighting piracy

J. Lauritzen participates in internal and external piracy focus groups to share strategies, countermeasures and experience. Together with industry partners, we constantly evaluate the situation and monitor the development of security measures and the pirates' behaviour. This also reflects our contingency plans which are under constant revision and tested continuously in order to optimise our ability to respond to an attack or if a vessel is captured by pirates.